Ki'ti's Story, 75,000 BC

by Bonnye Matthews

  Ermol-na, Guy-na, Ghanya, Kai, and Grypchon-na headed to the open field to the south. There was a dropoff there and they hoped to run a rhino over it. They had discussed the plan for days and it seemed sound. If the animal went over the dropoff, they thought, they would reduce their risk of personal injury in the kill. As they walked the trail they’d begun to form when going back and forth to the site, Guy-na pointed out a large antelope well hidden in the trees. This was the largest antelope, a beautiful animal, and it looked a little like a large horse. The humid landscape was just getting into full sun in the mountains. In some places, it appeared that clouds were rising from slumber on the land. Sounds of waterfowl from the small lake further south reached their ears. Birds welcomed the day with song. It was a beautiful day.

  As they approached the field, the men did see the rhino they’d seen on earlier trips. It was a small rhino, but that didn’t make it a small mammal compared to humans. It was dangerous to hunt these animals. They had extremely good hearing and sense of smell, but they couldn’t see well. They had one horn and thick folded tough skin.

  The hunting party began putting their plan into action. The rhino was oriented with its head toward the dropoff. Guy-na crept to one side of the beast, and Ermol-na, the other. They carried leafy branches along with their spears. Arrayed behind the beast were Grypchon-na and Ghanya carrying rocks and spears. Kai maneuvered around in front of the rhino to the ledge at the dropoff. He kept below the level of the land so that the rhino would not smell him. A slight breeze blew from the ledge toward the rhino.

  Kai’s objective was to taunt the animal and then at the last moment squat in safety of the ledge just under the dropoff. There was a slight indentation by the ledge and Kai planned to slide into the indentation. Guy-na and Ermolna’s goal was to keep the beast headed to the dropoff. If needed, Grypchon-na and Ghanya were to spur the beast from the back end.

  At the signal from Ermol-na, the hunters began their plan. Kai stood up and called to the rhino. The beast was alert immediately. The others remained totally still. The beast pawed the ground. It looked from side to side. Kai threw small pebbles at it and called to it while jumping about on the ledge. It edged forward toward Kai. He yelled and yelled at the rhino while Ghanya and Grypchon-na used slings to hit the back legs of the rhino with stones. The rhino finally spotted Kai. It had had enough. It began to charge Kai, who waved and yelled at the animal. In seconds, the animal covered the distance to Kai. He squatted and headed into the depression behind the ledge. He just about made it, but the rhino began to stampede and went headlong over the ledge, its hind leg catching Kai’s leg. The bone in Kai’s leg broke but the skin remained intact. The rhino crashed onto the land below, breaking its own neck. Ghanya was sent back to the cave at a fast run for a stretcher and some women to help with the meat, and other helpful carriers, first for Kai and then for butchering and transporting the meat and skin.

  Ghanya arrived at the home cave breathless. He explained what was needed. Hahami-na and Ekuktu grabbed the poles and a skin for the stretcher and headed out immediately. Totamu gathered her tools for healing a broken leg. She had given initial splints to Hahami-na along with some leather ties. She also gave him a leaf for Kai to chew immediately. She started a tea that would reduce pain so it would be ready when Kai arrived.

  Women gathered and picked up tools for skinning and the ones the men would need for butchering. They began to follow the path to the field. There was a lot of excitement in the cave. They hadn’t had rhino for so long that some People in the cave actually began to salivate thinking of it. Mitrak was busy laying out soft skins on the ground for Kai close to the cave wall where he wouldn’t be in the way. Shmyukuk offered to watch Ketra when Kai arrived, so that Mitrak could keep her mind on Kai only, when he first arrived back. Veymun went outside to find a tree branch that would serve as a crutch for the man. Amey raced out to help her, bringing a tool for cutting branches.

  At the field, the men made a temporary splint for Kai’s leg so they could get him back up to ground level. He was in a tremendous amount of pain. He was also irked that he had not been speedy enough to avoid the falling beast. He felt that somehow he had let the others down. When Hahami-na and Ekuktu arrived with the stretcher, the men placed Kai on it. They gave him the leaf from Totamu to chew, and added the splints to his leg because the temporary one was not very well done. Then they headed to the home cave with Kai.

  The men went down to the rhino kill and began to watch for hyenas, though it was early for those brown mottled, bad tempered beasts. They waited for the other men and women to bring all the tools needed to begin the butchering. They would have some great rhino evening meals and then a lot of meat to put up for the season of cold days. With the exception of Kai’s accident, it was good.

  After Kai had been returned to the home cave, Ghanya began a run to the other hunters. He could follow their tracks to the north field. He traveled quickly through the forest, sometimes leaping high over windfall and laughing out loud when he encountered monkeys in the trees at one point. Their curious faces and shouts at him struck him as humorous. A few monkeys threw their feces at him, but he was too far from them to have been hit. Light slanted slightly through the trees and made a lovely sight which was not lost on Ghanya. Finally, he arrived at the field and looked carefully for the other hunters. He could see them at the far end of the field. He continued his run. He arrived to find that they had felled a deer. He told them about the rhino. They quickly suspended the deer from poles and began to head to the cave with it. They would hand it over to the women and go to help butcher the rhino. They wanted to be sure that all useable parts of the rhino got back to the caves before any scavengers decided to get their share.

  Kai was lying on the skins sipping the tea that Totamu had prepared. It did help. She took the splints off carefully to clean the wound and apply healing herbs to the skin before setting and re-splinting it. Moving the leg caused Kai considerable pain. Fortunately, the skin was not broken through except in one small area that Totamu found. She washed it, put honey on it, added some herbs, and was confident it would heal well. Totamu told Chamul-na that she needed help with the leg. Chamul-na had done this before, so he was definitely her choice. He lumbered over to Kai.

  “This will hurt, Kai,” he said with feeling. “You need to be absolutely still.”

  Kai gritted his teeth. He didn’t doubt it would hurt. He wanted to be strong to show his manliness, so he drank the rest of the tea and hoped he wouldn’t cry or shout out. Chamul-na handed him a stick to bite. Chamul-na placed his foot in Kai’s crotch and took the young man’s leg in his hands. He could see that the leg was out of alignment. Totamu knelt beside Kai, ready with a length of tree bark and wide leather strips. When Chamul-na pulled the leg bones apart and slid them back into the correct position, Totamu’s callused hands worked efficiently and effectively. She placed soft leather first and then the bark around the leg to hold the bones in place and wrapped the leg with deer skins to hold the bark in place. Then she placed the straight sticks for holding the leg steady on either side of the leg and began to tie them in place to support the wrappings. She kept checking to be certain that she didn’t make any of the wrappings too tight. She didn’t want to add to Kai’s problems by cutting off his circulation. Once the splints were on, she wrapped the leg round and round with more wide skin strips. She also wrapped his foot to prevent him from wiggling his foot.

  Kai managed not to cry or scream while the leg had been straightened and splinted. He relaxed finally in a pool of sweat, exhausted, and took the stick from his mouth. Except for his injury, the hunt went as they had planned it. He kept trying to think how he might have avoided the injury. He was surprised at how fast the animal had moved. Finally, from the tea and the leaf he’d chewed and the earlier release of adrenaline, he drifted off to sleep on the extra soft skins, while remembering the excitement of the hunt.

  Totamu got up and touched Mitrak’s shoulder. “He was brave.
Because of his bravery, we have rhinoceros. He was also brave when his leg was being straightened. That is very painful. I hope he will be able to walk again. He will have to keep weight off his leg. You will make that clear to him?”

  “Of course. Thank you so much,” Mitrak said. She was worried about her husband, but she was proud of his taking the pain so well. She was frightened about his bravery with the rhino, but she would never have said it aloud.

  “When he wakens, he will need more tea for pain relief for a while. Here are the leaves to use. One leaf for each drink. You can use the leaves twice. I will leave you five of them. When he needs to relieve himself, get two men to help him. It will be a long time before he is ready for a crutch. He also is not to put any weight on the leg. It could make it so he cannot walk in the future if he puts weight on it now. The others will have to bear his weight for him. Do you understand all this?”

  “Yes. I do. Thank you again.”

  “My Dear, don’t keep thanking me. I thank him that I’ll be able to eat some rhino. He did that for all of us and we are all grateful. Please, give him our thanks.”

  Mitrak lowered her head. She put the leaves aside and went to get Ketra. She was surprised when Shmyukuk offered to keep the little one beside her and her family that night. Ketra would enjoy it, Mitrak thought, and it would help, so she agreed.

  The men from the north field arrived at the home cave, bringing the deer. They took some dried meat and a number of water skins and headed back for the rhino butchering. On their way they passed some of the men bringing meat to the preparation cave where there were women ready to start the preservation. Drying racks had already been set up. A couple of large pieces of rhino were set aside for the night’s meal. They were taken to the home cave and Veymun and Pechki got the pieces ready for roasting. They had to cut them down some so there were about 8 large roasts when they managed to fix them to the spits for roasting.

  When butchering such large animals the men were bloody messes when they finally arrived back at the home cave. Although they’d tried to clean themselves, the busy area of the cave was the bathing area. They had to bathe themselves and wash off their clothing. It was noisy and joyful as they spoke of the day’s events and the bravery of Kai. For the first time in her life, Emaea had participated in a small way and was part of this after-hunt bathing ritual that until she’d participated, she did not understand. She enjoyed the noise and good-natured fellowship.

  After the work in the meat preparation cave was completed, the dogs were ignored or invited—depending on whom might be asked—to enter the area to clean up the floor. New meat was as big a treat for the dogs as for the people. When the dogs finished, the floor was astonishingly clean.

  That night there was a great feast. It was late by the time all the meat was placed in the meat preparation cave. Much had been accomplished by the hunters that day. After the evening meal, Ghanya found Minagle sitting on the rock walk edge. He joined her. The trees were losing their color at the top as Wisdom sucked the color from the land. Minagle shivered from the cool wind that blew across her shoulders.

  “I wouldn’t have shivered if I still had all my hair,” she said, touching her short shining hair.

  “It’ll grow back,” Ghanya assured her while he put his arm around her to warm her. He found her attractive in an exotic way. Her hair was always clean and shining. The Minguat had never thought as much about cleanliness and grooming as the People. It did make a difference, he admitted to himself. Minagle even smelled good.

  “I know it’ll grow back. I just wish it would hurry,” she assured him, resting her head on his chest.

  With his free hand, he reached for her hand. He had never felt like this. She was so special to him. She made him feel wanted, needed, strong, gentle, intelligent—in a word—special. But then, she was People even if she didn’t look like it. He shoved the idea aside.

  “You ran fast and far today, I hear,” she said.

  “I like to run,” he responded. “Do you run?”

  “It is not something women do, or at least I’ve never seen any woman run.”

  “You are made more like me than like your People. It is possible that you could run easily. Sometime we will take a long walk and we’ll find a place and you can run to learn whether you enjoy it.”

  “I’d like that, Ghanya.”

  She noticed he still had some blood from the butchering in his ear. She spit on her fingertips and reached up to remove the dried blood. Ghanya was touched. He smiled at her.

  “Now, we’d better get you inside. You have bird skin from the cold. See the little bumps on your arm?”

  The two laughed gently as they returned to the cave.

  Ki’ti was leaning against the side of the cave on her sleeping mat with Ahriku at her side. She had been pondering how important it was for Wise Ones to have exemplary behavior. She wondered whether People would honor Wisdom less if the Wise One had less than exemplary behavior. She thought that it did make a difference. It had a profound impact on her to realize that her own behavior might affect how the People honored Wisdom. It frightened her to think of the huge amount of responsibility placed on her, but it also gave her a deeper seriousness and more conviction that she needed to stay strictly obedient regardless of what her exuberant spirit would have her do unchecked. She began to see the edges of what it meant to have a leadership role among the People. It was a heavy burden.

  A moan permeated the cave. Mitrak quickly poured hot water over the leaf in the bowl and carried it to Kai. She let the tea steep and then helped him sip the brew. He looked at her with grateful eyes. He made it clear that he needed to get to the privy so Mitrak explained what would be involved. He looked ashamed to have to lean on others, but realized that if he put weight on his leg before Totamu told him it was okay, he was asking for a limp at best in the future, at worst not being able to walk at all. His pride for the moment had to suffer for his strength for the People in the future. Mitrak asked Lamul and Manak to help Kai to the privy. Both were more than willing to help out. Manak and Lamul made a seat with their arms and carried Kai. Both agreed that was easier than being human crutches. They returned him to the cave and gently placed him back on the skins. Kai finished the remains of the brew and Mitrak covered him. He asked where Ketra was and Mitrak explained.

  Far in the back of the cave Amey had gone into labor. This would be her eighth child if it lived, but despite her fertility, she sometimes lost a baby before it was born. She had six stillborns that did not count as children. This one looked abnormally large in her belly.

  The men had been meeting. They had convinced themselves to build a barricade at the field that would limit the options of animals in the direction they could take, making them go where they wanted them to go. What they had difficulty with was knowing why Kai had a broken leg. That would have to wait until Kai could explain. They were convinced that running an animal off the cliff was a good idea. They just needed to think it through a little better. Nobody wanted to chance another broken leg.

  Flayk said to Pechki, “The stranger with the green bag had a garment made of black and white fur. What animals do you think his garments were made from?”

  Pechki looked up, “I have no idea. It had to be a big animal of each color, because the material was not pieced together. It wasn’t rabbit.” “No, it seemed to be a lot thicker and longer than rabbit fur and the skin was a lot thicker.”

  “I think we have a lot to learn yet about this land.”

  “I agree. Sometimes I miss our old home, not the cave in the ash, but the home we used to have,” Flayk said

  “I know what you mean. We could fish there so easily and the fish were good in addition to the other things we had. And it didn’t get so cold.”

  “Veymun said it was cold because of Baambas. Somehow, the ash in the sky keeps the sun from being as warm as it might be. It happened in the story.”

  “True. I wonder how long it will last. In the story it was many y
ears”

  “Well, I hope it’s not too long,” Flayk said. “Look back there. It looks like Amey is in labor.”

  “Let’s go help,” Pechki replied.

  Suddenly, the earth shook. People tried to steady what might fall over. It didn’t last long. Everyone waited to see whether another shake would follow, but the single event seemed to be all. Not even the water skin that was kept hot had fallen. All was fine.

  “Do you want some meat?” Mitrak asked Kai.

  “Yes, that might be good. Now, tell me it’s rhino,” he half smiled, “for revenge.”

  “It is,” she smiled back. Quickly, Mitrak got some meat and put it in his bowl. She brought it to him and helped him rise up to a sitting position.

  Kai took the bowl and began to eat. It was still warm and tasted good. He hadn’t realized he was hungry.

  Wamumur walked from the men’s meeting area to sit with Emaea. He had noticed for days now that Ki’ti’s behavior had made a huge turnaround. Wamumur asked Emaea what she thought about the permanence of the change, and neither had a clue because they had never parented and did not know what to anticipate. They also were not sure that having parented would tell them what they wanted to know about Ki’ti. They had, however, learned to take life as it came, so they were comfortable with not knowing. Both hoped it would last.

  Totamu walked past Chamul-na and said, “You did a very good job today on setting that leg. It seemed to be a pretty clean break.”

  “It did go back together very well. Surprised me. That is a strong and tough young man.”